美国国家公共电台 NPR Detroit Bookseller Picks 3 Nonfiction Books For Your Summer

Detroit Bookseller Picks 3 Nonfiction Books For Your Summer

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

There is nothing like a good book recommendation, and we have been collecting recommendations from booksellers across the country for our summer series, Pack These Pages.

(SOUNDBITE OF SEAGULLS CAWING, CAN OPENING)

MCEVERS: Janet Webster Jones says you can't ever pack enough pages.

JANET WEBSTER JONES: I just encourage people to step into books, read them and enjoy them. They are our best portable, low-tech thing to read that there is in the whole world.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

MCEVERS: For 41 years, Janet Jones was a teacher and administrator¹ in Detroit, her hometown. And now she owns Source Booksellers there. Her first pick is about balance.

JONES: I just love this little book. First of all, it has a bunch of balloons on the cover. And it's called "Why Grow Up?: Subversive² Thoughts For An Infantile Age" by Susan Neiman. Susan Neiman is a philosopher. And I'm particularly interested in that because I have a daughter that's a philosopher, so (laughter) we love philosophy.

One of the things that she says is that maturity³ (reading) means finding the courage to live in a world of painful uncertainty⁴ without giving in to dogma or despair. A grown-up, Neiman writes, helps to move the world closer to what it should be while never losing sight of what it is. I really like that because I'm a grown-up and I like to practice being a grown-up, but I also keep my childhoodness (ph) with me, too. So that's, I think, a really good one to have for the summer.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

JONES: So we always have books on history and culture, so we have a book called "The Warmth Of Other Suns." This is a very well-known book. Isabel Wilkerson is the author. And it's an epic⁵ story of America's great migration⁶. And I have to say that when I read this book, I had not thought of my parents as part of that migration. But they did - yeah, they did come from the South. They happened to have met in college in Atlanta, Ga. And they're both graduates of classes of 1929. They've, of course, passed on by now. But I never thought of them in that regard.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)

JONES: So we have a book on food because we do allow cookbooks. It's called "A History Of Food In 100 Recipes." This is from England and is from William Sitwell. And he writes about these many different recipes that we're really familiar with and talks about the history of them - where they came from, how they got going. He has one called earth apples, potatoes fried and simmered in bacon bits. He talks about broth⁷. It's - he has a pair of pies, so he talks about pears in pies and how all that came about.

MCEVERS: For Janet Jones' full collection of pages to pack this summer, go to our Facebook page or head over to Twitter, where you'll find us @npratc.

1 administrator   

n.经营管理者，行政官员

参考例句：

• The role of administrator absorbed much of Ben's energy.行政职务耗掉本很多精力。
• He has proved himself capable as administrator.他表现出管理才能。

2 subversive   

adj.颠覆性的，破坏性的；n.破坏份子，危险份子

参考例句：

• She was seen as a potentially subversive within the party.她被看成党内潜在的颠覆分子。
• The police is investigating subversive group in the student organization.警方正调查学生组织中的搞颠覆阴谋的集团。

3 maturity   

n.成熟；完成；(支票、债券等)到期

参考例句：

• These plants ought to reach maturity after five years.这些植物五年后就该长成了。
• This is the period at which the body attains maturity.这是身体发育成熟的时期。

4 uncertainty   

n.易变，靠不住，不确知，不确定的事物

参考例句：

• Her comments will add to the uncertainty of the situation.她的批评将会使局势更加不稳定。
• After six weeks of uncertainty,the strain was beginning to take its toll.6个星期的忐忑不安后，压力开始产生影响了。

5 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

6 migration   

n.迁移，移居，（鸟类等的）迁徙

参考例句：

• Swallows begin their migration south in autumn.燕子在秋季开始向南方迁移。
• He described the vernal migration of birds in detail.他详细地描述了鸟的春季移居。

7 broth   

n.原(汁)汤(鱼汤、肉汤、菜汤等)

参考例句：

• Every cook praises his own broth.厨子总是称赞自己做的汤。
• Just a bit of a mouse's dropping will spoil a whole saucepan of broth.一粒老鼠屎败坏一锅汤。